Salmon River Fish Surveys!

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The Salmon River Restoration Council hosted its 32nd annual Cooperative Spring Chinook and Summer Steelhead Dive this summer. Together, volunteers, including EPIC staff, snorkeled and hiked 100 miles to survey the stretches of the Salmon River to assess the population of Spring Chinook Salmon and Summer Run Steelhead.

These cooperative dives are part of one of the longest-running salmon monitoring efforts of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. Since the early 1990s, the annual surveys have provided an important long-term record of wild spring Chinook and summer steelhead populations in the Salmon River, helping scientists, Tribes, agencies, and conservation organizations track population trends and inform restoration and management.

Last year’s count brought a welcome increase in spring Chinook, with 489 fish observed—the highest count in more than a decade. Favorable water conditions, including higher flows and cooler temperatures, likely helped returning adults. The increase also came during a historic moment for Klamath salmon: removal of the four lower Klamath River dams was completed in 2024, reopening access to more than 400 miles of habitat that had been blocked for more than a century.

This year, due to the overall low snowpack, water levels have been really low on the Salmon River and in many other watersheds across the West due to fossil-fueled climate change. Additionally, there was an early heat wave, causing higher water temperatures in the already thin stretches of the Salmon River. Because of the abnormally warm and low water conditions, we anticipated the fish to be already stressed out. To mitigate this, the number of surveyors that were allowed to participate in this year's dive was limited so that we wouldn’t scare or stress the fish out too much.

The fish populations assessed from the July 2026 Salmon River surveys are outlined below:

• SPRING CHINOOK ADULTS: 133

• SPRING CHINOOK JACKS: 12

• SUMMER STEELHEAD ADULTS: 201

• SUMMER STEELHEAD 1/2 POUNDERS: 278

• DOCUMENTED AQUATIC SPECIES MORTALITIES:

  • Spring Chinook (adult) = 2

  • Steelhead (half-pounder) = 2

  • Juvenile steelhead/rainbow trout = 16

  • Sucker = 2

  • Pacific giant salamander = 10

Together, the adult and Jack counts total just 145 spring Chinook, down from 489 counted in 2025. While annual numbers naturally fluctuate, the Salmon River’s spring Chinook population has remained below its long-term average for the past decade, underscoring how vulnerable this unique population remains. 

The Salmon River is one of the last strongholds for wild spring Chinook in the Klamath Basin. These fish are especially important now that Klamath dam removal has reopened hundreds of miles of historic salmon habitat in the Upper Klamath Basin. Protecting the wild spring Chinook and the habitat they depend on will be essential if springers are to recover and eventually reclaim portions of their ancestral range in the Upper Klamath Basin. 

For EPIC staff, participating in the annual dives and swimming alongside these remarkable fish makes both their resilience and their vulnerability impossible to ignore. EPIC is grateful to SRRC, Tribal partners, fisheries biologists, and community members who continue this decades-long monitoring effort, and we remain committed to advocating for the cold, clean water and healthy watersheds that spring Chinook and summer steelhead need to survive.